The Human Dynasty

Humans may be programmed by evolution to care about the long-term future, suggests new research. A study finds that individuals may have an innate tendency to care about the long-term future of their communities, over timescales much longer than an individual’s lifespan. This in turn may help to explain people’s wish to take action over long-term environmental problems.

Humans may be programmed by evolution to care about the long-term future, suggests new research. A study finds that individuals may have an innate tendency to care about the long-term future of their communities, over timescales much longer than an individual’s lifespan. This in turn may help to explain people’s wish to take action over long-term environmental problems.

New Scientist met palaeontologist Jørn Hurum to ask him about the media frenzy over Darwinius masillae – better known as Ida – and about what lies ahead for the fossil

A flood of spectacular new insights is emerging as palaeontologists swap hammers and chisels for X-rays and high-speed computers

Willingness to endure suffering for your beliefs inspires others to believe too, according to an analysis of behavioural evolution

Cod are evolving rapidly as a direct result of fishing, which may be why cod stocks have crashed in the past – and why Iceland’s may be about to

A new article explores the importance of dispersal to the evolution of parasites and suggests that as human activity makes the world more connected, natural selection will favor more virulent and dangerous parasites.

(University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) Sulfolobus islandicus, a microbe that can live in boiling acid, is offering up its secrets to researchers hardy enough to capture it from the volcanic hot springs where it thrives. In a new study, researchers report that populations ofS. islandicus are more diverse than previously thought, and that their diversity is driven largely by geographic isolation.

The Atlantic cod has, for many centuries, sustained major fisheries on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the North American fisheries have now largely collapsed. A new article provides insights into possible mechanisms of the collapse of fisheries, due to fisheries-induced evolution.

Scientists have re-examined prehistoric artifacts from a cave in southwest France, and they think that early modern humans may have used Neanderthal body parts as ornaments, and perhaps even food. The study “opens up a whole world of possibilities” about how humans and Neanderthals could have interacted, according to bioanthropologist Colin Groves of Australian National [...]